Retreat Revisited...
So I think i was half asleep when i published my last post and I left out one really crucial point made in the different sessions over the weekend that I think was extremely beneficial.'The Struggle to Align the Heart and the Mind' was the theme of the camp, and I think this particular point pretty much sums up the message made throughout the weekend insha Allah.
1) This life is a competition, and this is evident by everything around us and within us. The brother who made this point in his talk used to example of our creation. He went into detail about the biological makeup of the sperm and how hundreds of thousands of them are fighting to be the one that reaches the ovum yet all these obstacles are set up along the way, until finally when all is said and done only 1 is the victor. This competitive nature of creation is also evident in grass as they compete with each other for resources, and trees compete with grass for their resources as well. The speaker went on that the tree drops its leaves on the grass in order to kill it. People say they do it for this reason or that, but they are competing for resources".
This is a sign for mankind as our creation was started with competition and we now should be competing with our brothers and sisters to get a higher maqam with Allah swt.
Imagine that Muhammed PBUH even instructed us to make dua for him after each adhaan that Allah swt grant him al waseelata wal fadheelah, the highest level of al firdausil a'laa which is right under the throne of Allah swt.
Another speaker built upon this point by talking about our ruh. This ruh is described in suratul Baqarah by Allah swt as 'roohi', a rooh from Allah swt. This is our connection with Allah swt as this rooh is what directs us to do good actions and someone who does good continually is feeding their rooh and becoming one who is within the mercy of Allah swt. Imagine that our rooh longs for Allah so much that once a day it leaves us and dissappears in order to facilitate that love for Allah. Every time we sleep our rooh leaves us and that is why when we wake up we say the dua "Alhumdulillahil ladhee ahyanaa ba'da ma amaatana wa ilayhin nushoor", 'Allah praise be to Allah, the one who gave us life after death and to him is the ressurection'.
Another speaker also commented on a similar topic where he stated that someone who has a proper balance of heart and mind, these two become like a trained dog. You tell it to sit, it will sit. You tell it to 'get em', then that dog is gonna get em. Same way when a person does not have their mind and heart in control then these desires become like a pitt bull from the hood that is so out of control, when you see the owner walkin the dog it almost seems like the dog is walking them. The dog will bite anyone it feels like, and will be totally wreckless when it comes to its following desires.
Our heart is put into check through the rememberance of Allah swt, and our mind is put into check through the following of the Quran and Sunnah of Muhammed PBUH.
A speaker made a point that one who has an ego, will then poke their chest out and act in a manner of legislation without wisdom. Someone will come up to such a person and get them fired up and get them to say something that they shouldnt say and bam, they get thrown in jail cuz they didnt use hikmah in their speech and they followed their ego instead of following sound judgement.
I remember having a discussion with a brother once about how some people have so much energy when it comes to the deen when they first are exposed to it's pure form. This energy is the reason why I think many scholars put the first two steps of an Islamic Movement's ideology as 1) Knowledge and 2) Sincerity. This is because sincerity without knowledge is not what is going to save you necessarily. These rookie muslims come into the deen so pumped to follow the 'Quran and Sunnah' that they develop a sort of Intellectual Arrogance. They feel that they have now been rightly guided therefore every opinion must now be derived strictly from Quran and Hadith with no need for a sharh of the hadith or the commentary of a mufassir. We can just look through the books with our Yusuf Ali old english translation which is almost as difficult to understand as the arabic, and understand what the true way of implementing the deen is.
Where is our humility?
In my opinion this type of mentality is what has gotten many youths into the Jihadi movement because they feel that this type of method HAS to be right cuz 1) everyone is against it, and 2) they are raising the banner of Islam in all their videos so they gotta be the chosen ones.
Ignorance of the deen coupled with impatience with establishing the deen the way the Prophet did it has lead to many of our brothers choosing such a path, may Allah guide them to the correct path and make them among the foremost in opposing such a methodology of unbased jihadi theology...ameen.
Truely it is authentic scholarship which will guide us to the true way of getting out of this quick sand, and this method of trusting Islamic scholarship will only come about when the gap is bridged between those who have the daleel (Scholars) and those who seek the daleel, and this will only happen once we stop being arrogant thinking we can figure it all out on our own, and begin understanding that wisdom is not a right but it is a reward from Allah for those who struggle in His Path.
May Allah make us among those whom He loves...ameen
posted by Iboo LaL @ 2:20 PM
Comments: 1
